If we’re not in the fourth quarter, we’re in the third quarter of the chronological clock. It’s something you start to notice when you can’t remember where you put your keys can’t get it up discover that you’re older than candidates for Preznit and Vice Preznit, as we did in 2008:

This fall, we’re taking over the country. The torch has been passed to a new generation, and this time it’s personal. It’s the Barry & Sarah Show, hosted by Jon Stewart, fortysomethings all. Joe and John will have walk-on parts, but they’re both irrelevant to the story. It’s our world now, and you kids will just have to deal with it.

In other words, 2008 was the first post-Boomer election. Will 2012 be any different?

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Just a small bit of a galaxy:

“A judge on Monday blocked the city of San Antonio from renaming a street after the late labor activist Cesar Chavez. The temporary restraining order from State District Judge Antonia Arteaga came just days after the City Council voted along ethnic lines to approve the name change.” San Antonio is 61 percent Hispanic. [Reuters/MSNBC, ThinkProgress]

Rebecca Mansour, who is about as close to Sarah Palin as you can get without being Todd, had a private tweet-off with a cult member supporter last year. And now, somehow, the exchange has reached Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller. Let’s listen in!

• Erick Erickson is “a total douchebag. Greasy dumb ass with a talent for self-promotion. He threw himself in at the Gov’s SC rally. Self-promotion.”
• Romney supporters are “wacky as hell,” an “AstroTurf brigade.”
• California Senate candidate Chuck DeVore “wants to be the next Hugh Hewitt (or Huckabee). He knows he can’t win. He wants to become a ‘personality’. Give him a show to go away.” (Palin endorsed Carly.)

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So a twister kills 117 people and takes out Joplin, Missouri. What’s the first thing that crosses Eric Cantor’s mind?

The No. 2 House Republican said that if Congress doles out additional money to assist in the aftermath of natural disasters across the country, the spending may need to be offset.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said “if there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental.”

Ah, the cooler heads of fiscal responsibility in times of crisis. If you were wondering, Cantor’s the guy who worries about the water bill when the firetrucks pull up.

Eric Cantor: Disaster relief must be offset [Politico]

“With Governor Daniels deciding over the weekend not to run, it is slowly dawning on the Republican mind that the party’s choice may effectively come down to Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty. This prospect produces a range of emotions running from disappointment to panic.” [NRO]

Our guest colloquists are Time reporter Michael Crowley and Tim Pawlenty, who formally announced Monday his parody campaign for United States President. Our lawyers advise you not to read the following if you plan on driving or operating heavy machinery in the next eight hours.

TIME: I think [Haley Barbour] phrased it well: You have to be ready for a ten-year commitment to this onslaught. And you are going to go into the history books, and you will be sending people to their deaths. And all that gravity, it must start stirring up, I don’t know, in the middle of the night. I mean, in other words, surely before the fall of 2009 you started to think to yourself, ‘Can I do this? Am I one of these chosen few in history?’ And where did that germinate from?

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